


Siege

by owlaholic68



Category: Monster of the Week (Tabletop RPG), Original Work
Genre: Canon Compliant, Character Study, Gen, Introspection, Missing Scene, POV Third Person Limited, Stalking, Swearing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-13
Updated: 2020-01-13
Packaged: 2021-02-27 08:08:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,120
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22243846
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/owlaholic68/pseuds/owlaholic68
Summary: Harriett watches. Harriett waits. Harriett thinks.
Kudos: 2





	Siege

Harriett is not patient.

But she can learn. She can learn _anything_ if it guarantees success. If that means mastering the skill of patience, so be it. She will learn.

She learned civility. She taught herself how to bite her tongue and force herself not to scowl. She learned because otherwise she would have slipped and Jacques would have killed her a long time ago.

She gained civility. She can gain patience.

Difficult targets are the most rewarding. Harriett specializes in challenge cases.

Lucy gets easy apprentices. Lucy finds the ones with anger management issues, the ones who will practice fireballs on abandoned houses all night, the ones who will follow every order as long as there is the promise of more reward, of more power. Lucy trains knights who have been passed over for promotion. She teaches power-hungry criminals whose flash tempers rival even their own. The downtrodden, the insulted, the awful and the furious.

Harriett seduces nuns. She tempts poets and paragons of chivalry and the sweet charitable shopkeeper next door. Just one outburst, she entices. Just let go. Give in to the anger and it will fuel your hidden ambition. She gets her targets to a point where they believe their violence is justified, reasonable, divine. Where they _enjoy_ rage and vengeance like she does.

Lucy empowers sinners. Harriett rots saints.

Sonya is a tough one. Not a saint, at least, and certainly not a nun.

But she’s _angry,_ oh she’s so fucking mad. She burns with hatred. Already a success in Jacques’ book.

And it’s because of Harriett.

She can do more. Go further. Make Sonya _unstoppable._

All she might require is a little bit of patience.

* * *

Step One: be nice.

So she brings Sonya food. And walks with her. All the while acting suspiciously innocent. And annoying. A page out of Lucy’s book on how to drive your target up a fucking wall.

Then it’s a waiting game.

Sonya brings in her first reinforcements: Caradoc. But Harriett’s not being aggressive, she’s not being mean, so what is there to even do against her?

Step Two: Siege.

Persistence. More patience, unfortunately. She’s starting to get the hang of this.

Which is good, because this is getting progressively more boring. Sonya’s not leaving her bookstore or apartment anymore, at least not on foot. Getting her little friend to teleport her and in and out and bring her food.

“You can’t do this forever!” Harriett yells. It’s true. One of them will give up at some point.

She doesn’t get an audible response, so she escalates to throwing knives at the door and tossing pebbles at the window.

“You’re a _stubborn_ one,” she mutters to herself. Standing out in the cold (not that she feels it, but people have started giving her odd looks). “We’ll see who’s more tenacious, little rabbit.”

Patience.

* * *

This is not going well. Sonya is nowhere to be found.

“You try,” Harriett snaps, pushing the scrying mirror at Lucy. “She’s fucking _nowhere,_ Luce.”

“She’s not _nowhere,_ idiot,” Lucy snaps back. “She has to be somewhere.” She looks frustrated too. Probably because Jacques is starting to get _really_ pissed about the whole Cecilus thing and Lucy is starting to run out of excuses. Or maybe because Harriett has been bugging her about this for the last five hours.

Harriett gets up and paces. Patience, patience, she repeats to herself.

Sonya is somewhere that can’t be found. Come to think of it, Caradoc is _also_ somewhere that can’t be found.

She calls Caradoc. No answer. Drat, it was worth a try. But they’re probably together. So if she can find one…

“I’m going out,” she declares. “Call me if you have an update.”

“Sure, sure.” Lucy distractedly replies, staring into the mirror.

Step Three: call literally everybody Harriett knows to see if they know where Sonya is.

Her finger hovers over Jacques’ contact in her phone. She sighs. Best not bother him right now. Plus, she wanted her (eventual) success to be a surprise. But the next name on the list…

“Um, hello?” James answers, obvious confusion in his voice. “H-Harriett, is it an…emergency? This isn’t the best time.” _Why the fuck are you contacting me,_ is the unspoken question.

“Not an emergency, not really. Not yet.” Harriett lets that statement linger to build up his anxiety. “Stacey was worried about Sonya, that’s all. Hadn’t seen in her in a week and wasn’t getting any response when she tried to call.”

“Oh. Well, um…” There is muffled shuffling on the other end. “I’ll try to ask, I guess. I’ll get in touch if I find anything out.”

“Of course.” Harriett smiles, even though he can’t see her. Civility, civility. That bit about Stacey was a good addition to the lie. “I couldn’t really care either way, but Stacey keeps bugging me, so…”

“Yeah, yeah, of course. Well, thank you for contacting me, H-Harriett, I guess. If you need anything else…”

“Yeah. Bye.” She hangs up. Already too long of a conversation. Ugh.

Time to search some more.

Patience, patience.

* * *

Step Four: pretend like she’s given up.

Sonya has a nice enough apartment. No cats, at least not in here.

She waits. Hours. Overnight.

Maybe this is a lost cause. Maybe Harriett is trying too hard. She always had a tendency towards over-ambition and she’s reached too far too many times to count.

No. Sonya is _not_ a hopeless case.

She was angry before she started being a coward. She needs to see that wrath is important. It’s useful. It can make her powerful.

“Little bookstore girl needs to learn to fucking stand up for herself,” Harriett whispers to the bathroom mirror. “Hiding isn’t going to do her any good.” Harriett braids her hair into two twin long braids, then unbraids it and throws it into a bun instead. Better.

In a fit of boredom and frustration, she messes up the apartment. Starts trying on Sonya’s jewelry, hats, scarves, accessories.

She hears voices from the living room. Sonya and her teleporting friend, the magician.

Patience paid off. It always does.

* * *

Patience will pay off. It always does.

Harriett is disappointed in Sonya’s rejection. But not surprised.

This was to just test the waters. Harriett jumped in feet-first and found the waters turbulent and confused. She can work with that. Sonya attacked her when directly provoked. She can hone that reaction into something more focused.

This was a good start.

She skips home from Sonya’s apartment, hopping onto benches and dancing across icy curbs.

If Sonya survives the next week, Harriett will try again. She has a lot of work to do. A lot of planning.

 _If_ she survives. With that temper and determination, she just might.


End file.
